


Next to Me

by wirewrappedlily



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Fix-It, M/M, trigger warning: PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-24
Updated: 2015-03-24
Packaged: 2018-03-19 08:59:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3604206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wirewrappedlily/pseuds/wirewrappedlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry found himself surrounded in a sea of bodies, blood dripping from his hands, and his conscience more clear than it had been in months.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Next to Me

**Author's Note:**

> Please remember: the first thing I write for a fandom is usually the worst, so go easy on me. 
> 
> I wrote this because of [this](http://the-staged-inadequacy.tumblr.com/post/113746644687): many thanks for letting me put it up, I hope it's not a disappointment.

A gentleman did not come back from the dead to simply defect from both his chosen profession and the men and women left thinking him dead. That was one thing that had turned Harry Hart from the newest iterations of Bond. While it was titillating to think that he could escape this life that he'd created, leaving behind him all his life had ever known was not something that held much interest for the true gentleman spy. 

Thusly, when Harry Hart was recovered by Kentucky hospital personnel--and after subsequently explaining 1: who he was, and 2: why he'd killed half a church full of quite possibly the most hateful and vile people he'd ever had the displeasure of meeting (and that included the time he spent a week attempting to save the already-dubious virtue of a young royal in her first blush of freedom)--he contacted Kingsman, and prepared for a trip home. 

Haunting him were the nightmares of what he had done in that church; more so, even, than the nightmares of what had happened to him outside of it. He was going home a half-broken man, a nasty scar torn through his left temple, and a distinct ache behind his eyes with every time he blinked. He was going home, to what little was left of it, and if he was being honest with himself, the duplicity of Arthur hadn't surprised him as he wished it would. He was going home, he hoped in his heart of hearts, to find Eggsy sitting in his flat, with JB affronted that it'd taken so damn long and had made his owner so damn unhappy. 

Reading the mission reports, Harry felt a surge of pride for the boy; the reckless, insolent risk he'd taken just in order to snub Arthur of the thought that being a Kingsman meant all those things Eggsy had first thought it meant, too. The silver spoon and the lavish life had been utterly subverted, because the risk he'd taken had payed off enough to stop the end of the world. Harry, as the expression went, was quite chuffed about that. 

But the psych reports in the intervening month from the collapse of the world to now were troubling. It seemed it wasn't only Harry having nightmares--to the extent that, with his mother and baby sister moved into a house very near Harry's, Eggsy had found himself in a mandatory stay at the Kingsman manor: surveilled nigh-on constantly and cleared only for missions within the United Kingdom. That last, Harry knew, would be chafing at Eggsy after the explosiveness of his first mission, but it seemed that that had been remedied with most Knights being grounded where they were, to put pieces back together of a world that needed its solid, if secret, foundations in order to remain standing. 

Lancelot was awaiting him next to a quietly beaming Merlin, and Harry didn't allow himself to look for anyone else as he shook their hands in greeting on the tar mac. 

"He doesn't know." Roxy burst out almost immediately after Harry's attention had slid just slightly away. "We...he's been having nightmares about your death, sir." Roxy was ignoring Merlin's glare, but in a way that told Harry she still respected that Merlin would be able to electrocute her with her battery-powered toothbrush if given half a reason. "When I tried to tell him..."

"When Lancelot tried to tell your protoege that you were not, in fact, dead, I was forced to administer a sedative." Merlin spoke softly and quickly, "But you've just come back from the dead, so let's let him get some sea legs, shall we, Lancelot?" 

The reprimand was gentle, for Merlin, and Harry's head seemed to be unable to stop spinning. Eggsy had needed tranquilizing? What Harry had expected was anger, maybe distrust--not for the idea to send Eggsy spiraling. 

"I think I've quite gotten my sea legs, Merlin. Lan--Roxy, if you would be so kind, I would appreciate it if you told me what happened." They made their way to the car with a dull ringing in Harry's ears as Roxy filled him in on things that a report wouldn't catch--but a boy's best friend would. 

"He's eating maybe a third of what he normally does," Roxy's voice was barely more than a whisper, her eyes distant, "and, honestly, seeing him knocked out was the first I've seen him peacefully sleep." Merlin stayed silent, ostensibly considering the road as he drove slowly and carefully through the streets that seemed half-demolished and near deserted. "He trains harder than ever, sir, but it's like he's somewhere else." 

"Going through the motions." Harry filled in when she seemed to have stalled. 

She nodded, her lips delicately pursed. "He's a young lad," Merlin interjected, "he's had his first taste of what it is to be a Kingsman, and it's taking some time for him to adjust." 

"That's a lie." Roxy intervened, her voice like a slap. "He was built for this, and you know it. It's not being a Kingsman that's weighing on Eggsy, Merlin, it's--" 

"It's me." Harry finished quietly, "He's been put off-balance. I did that, and I will be the one to set it to rights. Take me to headquarters, Merlin, I understand he's there. Seeing me alive may well be better than simply hearing about it." 

Roxy didn't reply, though Merlin's silence was the more telling as he huffily turned the car to head towards the shop and the tube under it. By the time they'd reached the manor, Harry felt as if his heart was about to beat out of his chest, the agitation that had bloomed at the picture Roxy had painted in his head making every disapproving twitch of Merlin's feel as though it were cause to verbally decapitate the man. Harry himself could remember a time not too long ago when Merlin had been working himself into a right lather over--

Over his wife's reaction to a month in which Merlin had been comatose and, to her, missing. Harry was under no impression at all that Eggsy's worry was that of a wife of the battlefield. Eggsy and he had no real bond beyond that of a mentor and pupil, and even that was strenuous at best--on Harry's part particularly. 

Harry could not pinpoint the moment Eggsy Unwin had well and truly gotten under his skin, enough that he had been willing to show off in that pub, and promise Eggsy a second chance with the Kingsman that may not have existed had the world not gone to hell in a handbasket as soon as Harry was lying in a pool of his own blood on the dusty walk of the vile little church. Arthur would certainly not have entertained the idea of allowing Harry's miscreant another chance. 

With a wry twist of his mouth as he pushed through the rooms to find Eggsy, Harry gave credence to the fact that, ultimately, it'd been Eggsy to kill the snobbish, arrogant twat. 

The protective, assertive yap of JB greeted him as he burst into the library, where he'd learned Eggsy favoured only second to sitting at Harry's bedside. 

Eggsy let out a hissing sound, and JB went silent immediately, letting out a tiny whine as he jumped down from the chair he'd been deposited on and went trotting out the door. 

"Dog's worse for seein' ghosts 'an I am." Eggsy growled to himself, not tearing his nose out of the pages of Pygmalion. 

"Ghosts of Christmases past?" Harry inquired with a touch more joviality than he meant to, and Eggsy let out a full body twitch, just as Roxy walked in behind him. 

The paleness of Eggsy's features worried Harry more than he had the patience or time to articulate, but as the usually warm green of his eyes, they looked far more lost, murky, than Harry could stand to see. "Hullo, Eggsy." Roxy prompted, sweeping past him and shooting an expectant glance between Harry and the man clutching a first edition like he might be reeled to shore by it. 

"'Lo, Rox." Eggsy managed, sounding strangled, his eyes never leaving Harry as the female agent bent to peck a kiss to his cheek from behind. 

"You alright?" 

"I...I think I need to go walk JB. 'E's barking at air again, think 'e liked it better when we was runnin' basic." 

Roxy opened her mouth to comment on Harry, but Eggsy had pushed himself up and away from the table in a violent, blindingly fast movement, sliding past her and out the door, head ducked and hands shaking. 

"That...did not go swimmingly." Roxy sighed, leaning her hip against the mahogany table with her arms crossed over her chest. 

Harry had known that hurt was among the many possibilities, but he had thought he'd be given at least the chance to explain. He hadn't been _able_ to contact them, to let anyone know he was alive, until he'd regained consciousness in a tiny hospital in rural Kentucky, handcuffed to his hospital bed. 

"He does adore you, Harry." Roxy told him, "But shock...he just needs time." 

Harry twitched a nod, "Yes, I know...I know he needs time." It would succeed where Valentine's bullet had comically failed, but Harry Hart would give Eggsy all the time he had and more if it lightened that look from his eyes. 

Harry woke that night to a low growl at the foot of the infirmary bed Merlin had insisted on to keep an eye on any lasting damage that might' ex been done. JB was leaping as though on beans, growling all the while, as if trying to get Harry's attention. Seeing it was finally procured, the pug turned tail and started scampering for the door, just slow enough that Harry had the nagging feeling that he was expected to follow. 

Traversing the manor in pitch black in his nightclothes while chasing a pug that very nearly cost Eggsy his career was sadly not even ranking on the list of strange things Harry Hart had done for the good of Kingsman and country. 

Finally, reaching what was obviously Eggsy's room, JB planted himself firmly in front of the door and looked up at Harry expectantly. 

From inside, Harry could already hear the distress and the moans of helpless nightmare, and Harry pushed into the room without any further coaxing from the canine, hit with the sharp, metallic reek of fear as Eggsy twisted and thrashed in his covers, choking on nothing and crying steadily in his sleep. 

"Eggsy," Harry sighed, careful of approaching the bed. "Eggsy, wake up now, it's just a dream." 

Green eyes flickered just enough that Harry was reassured touching the trained-to-kill spy wouldn't end in him having to hurt Eggsy to defend himself, and Harry leapt on the opportunity, pulling Eggsy half-up and sliding to a seat, letting the boy's back settle against his lap. 

Eggsy was bare from the waist up, his chest sheened with sweat and heaving as his breathing slowed. Harry put his fingers into the hair that had grown dangerously close to fluffy without its mousse or gels, and Eggsy let out a desperate sound when Harry touched him. "It's alright now, I'm here." Harry soothed, and Eggsy's hand found his own, clutching like a lifeline. 

"Don't...please don't leave me. I'll do anything--I'll make you proud, I promise, just please don't leave me." 

Harry listened to the litany as he cradled the boy in his arms, running his fingers through his hair, and fought back the tightness in his throat and his chest. "I couldn't be parted from you again, Eggsy." Harry whispered. 

"I can't lose...I can't lose you..." Eggsy sobbed, more asleep than awake. 

"You haven't lost me, my darling boy. You make me proud every damn day." Harry whispered to him, hugging him close to his chest while he could, greedier than a gentleman ever should be with his chance at affection. "It's okay now, I'm here. It's okay." Lips wet with tears pressed sloppily to the base of Harry's thumb, and Harry sucked in a breath, holding onto Eggsy all the tighter. "You saved the world. Let me save you, hm?" 

~

That first morning, Harry woke in Eggsy's bed alone. He got up, went to breakfast, and found that Eggsy wasn't there, though JB curled up on his feet when he sat to his own meal, and the dog transformed into a nice little ball of heat that seemed to have the express purpose of warming him through. 

"Both Lancelot and Galahad have been called to Singapore." Merlin told him in leiu of 'good morning'. He shifted down a stack of at least ten different papers in at least three different languages, and then gives over a tablet on top of all that. 

On said tablet, Eggsy's feed played, the glasses half-in his pocket, but just above the inky blackness that swallows most of the video, Harry can make out Roxy completely gone to the world in the seat across from him, the audio picking up a faint, growling snore. 

"He was watching you, you know." Merlin murmured to him from out of the blue, and under the table Harry can feel JB growl, more than hear it. "He was watching when...when Valentine pulled the trigger--" 

"And everything before." Harry wanted that to be a question, and he wished he could have it denied, but there was truly no hope of either, really. 

"You do know that wasn't you, right?" Merlin rumbled like the stormcloud he was, "An' besides, if ya re-watch the feed, I think you'll find you racked up a lower kill-count than that little old organ player in the fuzzy pink cardigan. Bloody fuck, she must've been over eighty and still more spritely than you!" 

Harry gave him a look that spoke volumes as to how the attempt at levity was appreciated but not useful, and Merlin merely shrugged. 

"They're in Singapore to find and detain an arms dealer that helped Valentine set up with the anti-aircraft missiles. Apparently, his head didn't combust, so we may be looking at a larger chess set than originally thought." 

"Eggsy is Galahad...what does that make me?" 

"Arthur." Merlin told him, the word more an offering than a declaration. 

"That...is particularly distasteful to me, given that the last Arthur turned out to not only be a traitor, but also tried to kill my--tried to kill Eggsy in the act." 

"Aye, but almost a century of being the Knights, and you wanna change that now?" 

Harry snorted, looking away and sipping on his tea. 

"Eggsy more than took care of himself, Harry. He saved the fucking world." 

Harry's eyes narrowed, "The language you're spewing has a distinct mark of being from spending too much time with our charges." 

"I think the fact that I caught you in bed with our young Galahad may be a mark of you needing to spend more time with him. For the good of you both, for god's sake." 

"Your ceaseless tact is, as ever, charming, Merlin." 

"Bugger off, I don't give a flying fig who is screwing whom, I just care about the good of my agents, yourself included." 

"Arthur should not be dallying with Galahad--" 

"I'm sure there's something somewhere written where they do just that, Hart: you really shouldn't doubt the internet nowadays." 

Harry nearly snorted the sip of tea he was taking through his nose, glaring at Merlin, who merely shrugged in response. 

"You're stable, and that is what we need most now, Harry. What he needs most. Someone he can trust." 

"Someone he can trust taking over the title of the man who tried very hard to kill him, Merlin." 

"You knew that it was blanks when you shot Mr. Pickle, Harry." Merlin pinned him with a look, pouring himself a tea and sipping primly. "You would never hurt something you love." 

"The weight difference between blanks and bullets isn't something noticeable." Harry pointed out. 

"It is if you have sensitive enough hands." Merlin shot back easily. They both knew that Harry's hands had been a point of pride in his youth; becoming a surgeon had been Harry's calling before the Kingsman ever came for him. Harry had known, all those years ago, that Mr. Pickle was in no true danger and it brought up a wave of guilt that he'd dared to hold Eggsy to a standard he'd never truly met himself. 

A small sound drew their attention back to the tablet as Eggsy pulled the glasses from his pocket and afixed them properly, _"Merlin?"_

"I'm here, Galahad." Merlin assured, "Is there something you needed, or do just miss me already?"

_"I'm afraid it's the first one, old chap."_ Harry bit down on a smile at the affronted sound that escaped his old friend, _"Bring up the pictures of our mark on your end, specifically the one tagged one-seven-eight-five."_ Merlin pulled up the picture in question; the mark's head half-turned as he neared the door of his car on the busy street. The hairline behind his ear wasn't quite clearly visible, but it was visible enough to see a bright pink scar half-bisecting an older, more healed one. _"The scar, Merlin. Could it be from someone who didn't know what they were doing trying to remove the chip?"_

"Theoretically, yes..." Merlin murmured, "I would have thought Valentine would have measures against it..." 

"Valentine was mad: he thought the opinion, once won, would not be so easily lost." Harry reasoned.

There was a slight pick up in Eggsy's heart rate and breathing, but he didn't reply for a beat. _"Valentine was bloody sure of himself: he was willing to bring anyone into the know, and while he kept an eye on a few key players, he can't've watched them all."_

Merlin hummed, thoughtful, "I need to have another go at the records of those chips, Galahad, but it's a good catch and a promising lead. Merlin out."

Merlin retreated to his bunker then, and Harry settled back in his chair, picking up the tablet as Eggsy began humming to himself, "I suppose in the last few months the world has been awash with conspiracy theorists. I used to try to keep up with the theories connected to a job I'd done, but with the internet taking the world to its knees, I've found that the sheer number of conspiracy theories outweighs the amount of time I have to spare. As it is, reading the more respectable publications is beginning to present a worrying look into several theories already, presented as fact."

Eggsy didn't reply, huffing out a breath close enough to a laugh that Harry smiled. 

"I knew you would make more a Kingsman than any one of those first trainees, your present partner discluded. Though I do think that you and she rather balanced each other. You work together quite nicely." 

Eggsy's gaze swept around as though looking for unwanted ears on the private jet before breathing, _"Woulda killed to work wi' you, Harry."_

"Then let's work together now, Eggsy. I may not be there, but someone to bounce ideas off of has often proved to me to be invaluable." Eggsy let out a breath on the other end of the line, and the pain that was barely hidden behind it was enough to make Harry ache to have Eggsy right there, to be able to reach out and touch and give him comfort. A lover had told him once, years ago, that his voice was the most comforting thing in the world. With that in mind, Harry drew a deep breath, and began, "I don't believe I ever told you how truly impressed I am by the way you move. Leaping from one balcony to the next as you do, it gave me a bloody heartattack, but it was much like watching a master performer. In another life, I might've bought tickets to your show." 

_"I...I always liked ballet,"_ Eggsy whispered the admission, low enough still that even if Roxy were merely feigning unconsciousness, she wouldn't be able to hear, _"Me mum used to watch taped performances. I loved how sure ballet dancers were. Dean woulda beat me senseless if he'd ever caugh' me, but when me mum stopped, I kept watching."_

"You...would have made a bloody brilliant dancer, Eggsy. Which show was your favourite?" Harry turned off the live visual feed in order to sweep about for tickets to the ballet. He had an image in his mind of the awe on Eggsy's face were he to have the benefit of seeing a live performance, and it was something Harry felt needed to happen, rather as soon as possible. 

_"Can't remember the name of it...I don' think it was something normal."_

Harry found tickets to an assortment of promising performances, making a note to snatch up whatever time he could during the performance days with Eggsy, hoping to give him a chance to enjoy something he'd wanted to for years. "We'll have to try every one, just to see, then." Harry told him smoothly, and Eggsy gave a sad facsimile of a laugh. "...You should try to get some sleep, Eggsy." Harry told him softly, and the stutter in his breathing pursed Harry's lips into a thin line, "I'll be here when you wake." 

~

Roxy didn't know what was going on with her partner in crime, not exactly anyway. 

She'd had her suspicions, in the days of basic when Eggsy would take what little free time allowed them to go to sit at Harry's bedside like a worried housewife. She knew that the way in which Eggsy looked up to the elder agent wasn't merely a look of a pupil to a mentor, and she had her suspicions that Harry might have felt much the same, given a little more time. 

The pride that had come out of Eggsy's refusal to give over intel while tied to train tracks had been more acute, even than that of her own mentor, as if the loyalty Eggsy had exhibited hadn't merely been for the Kingsman, but for Harry himself. 

Eggsy's grief had been manic and sudden: the high of having saved the world crashing down fast enough that Roxy felt almost as though her own head was spinning, never mind Eggsy's. Merlin hadn't known that the flight from picking her up from the mountains back to the manor had seen Eggsy devolve until he'd had something she thought akin to a panic attack. She wondered when the last time was he'd been shown any kind of affection. Not begotten from lust or a sense of duty, but actual affection, a feeling of having made someone very special proud. 

Roxy picked the lock on Eggsy's hotel room door in Singapore, walking in in her pajamas and swinging herself into the empty half of the perfectly white bed, jostling him as much as possible as he read. 

"Something I can help you with?" 

"Your bed is more comfortable than mine." Roxy told him simply, reaching over his head and snapping off the light, taking the book from his loose grip and putting it blindly on the nightstand and settling in next to him. "You wanna tell me what's going on with you?" She whispered, her cheek pressed against his shoulder. 

"I don' know what you're going on about." 

Roxy hummed, curling her fingernails into talons and setting them ever-so-gently on Eggsy's bare chest, smiling at his squeak. "Clever boy to be scared of me." 

"I'm not scared, I just...watched you file those nails into points for five hours on the way here." 

Roxy snorted, "It didn't take five hours, Eggsy." 

She pulled herself back, just laying there next to him, the silence stretching out between them. "You don' gotta worry 'bout me, Rox...I ain't 'bout to let anything happen to--"

"You're toiling under the assumption I'm asking after you for _me_. I trust you wholeheartedly, Eggsy. I know you won't let anything happen to me. I am not worried about me. I am worried about you." 

His silence stretched long enough that Roxy was starting to fall asleep, warm and comfortable beside him. 

Roxy had a soft spot for Eggsy: one that had only grown in the time she'd been working with him. She was thankful for the opportunity to work with him; she wasn't sure what she would have done if he'd not been accepted into the Kingsman as he had. She felt sure that she would've tracked him down and made a friend of him, even for how different they were. Harry had been right in his analysis that Kingsman required something _new_ in order to survive into the world today. Eggsy had helped her leap from that plane, and she knew unequivocally that he was such a help to her, there was no room for doubt in her mind that it taking care of him half as well as he took care of her was necessary. 

She knew when she woke up the next morning that taking care of Eggsy would be easier said than done. Sprawled on the rather uncomfortable armchair overlooking the desk and the window in the corner, Eggsy slept in the most uncomfortable position imaginable; though the term 'sleep' was perhaps an overstatement. Twitching and groaning, the thin, scratchy blanket Eggsy had pulled out of the closet had fallen off of his shoulders, his skin burst into gooseflesh as his head lulled on his neck in a way that gave Roxy a crick in her own just by looking at it. 

"Eggsy," she called, voice raised and authoritative in a calculated move to pierce through even the deepest sleep, "this is not what I'd intended. Are you really so uncomfortable that you couldn't sleep next to me?" 

Eggsy just groaned louder, his features pinching. 

Sighing, Roxy dragged herself out of the bundle of warmth that she'd made herself, grabbing one of his wrists and slinging his arm over her shoulders, hefting with a slight groan as she took his weight. " _You_ shouldn't weigh this much, so I'm going to blame that on your ego being heavy enough to affect your density." 

Dumping him onto the bed unceremoniously, Roxy straightened up and sighed, putting her hands on her hips and cracking her neck, ready to get down to business. 

Flinging the blankets around him, Roxy managed just barely to talk herself out of tucking him in like a child, grabbing up his glasses and opening communications, "Come in, Merlin." 

_"I'm here, Lancelot."_

"I'd appreciate speaking to Harry, please." 

_"I'm here as well, Roxy."_ Harry answered immediately, sounding as though he'd been half-asleep. 

"Sir," Roxy began, but couldn't continue. If she told Harry and Merlin what she could see happening to Eggsy, he could very well be de-commissioned. She knew that she could keep Eggsy's head above water for as long as it took for him to regain his strength, but she wasn't sure that the two elder agents would give her a chance. Biting her lip, she sighed, "Galahad hasn't reacted well to the time change, I'll be taking over the surveillance for the day. If...I would appreciate it if I were called should Eggsy-- _Galahad_ wake up badly, not recognizing his surroundings." 

The silence on the other end of the line got her proverbial hackles raised, but Harry's voice was quiet, smooth, and calm when it came, _"Of course, Lancelot. Report back to me at seventeen-hundred hours, and happy hunting."_

"Thank you, sir." 

_"If you would, place the glasses lens-up on the bedside; it would be easier to monitor Eggsy's sleep patterns if I were able to get a reading from the sensors from something other than mahogany."_ Merlin interjected, voice just as quiet and calm; free of both judgment and malice in the face of a weakness. 

"Yes, sir." Roxy replied, and removed the glasses to do as she'd been bid, sweeping a hand over Eggsy's forehead to push his hair back. "Sleep well, Eggsy." 

Making her customary call to Eggsy's mother, Roxy went down to the complimentary breakfast assuring the woman that her son was doing well, and that he'd be returned to her just as soon as they were done making an order for a client whose entire wardrobe had gone up in smoke during the 'Incident', as world-wide news had dubbed the Valentine-induced mania. She assured Michelle and Daisy that the man of the house was safe in her care, and got on with it, ready to track down their mark and see just what, exactly, she could find of his dirty dealings. 

_"Roxy, I'm speaking to you now as Harry, not as Arthur: Eggsy isn't afflicted with jet-lag, is he?"_

The quiet, soft way the worry permeated through his words made Roxy's heart twist. She found herself trusting in the man even more with the knowledge that he did truly care about Eggsy than she had through the simple promotion of Harry Hart into the role of Arthur. "If he is, it certainly isn't helping." She answered: she may trust him more, but that was no reason to be completely unguarded. 

_"I must ask you to do me a favour, Roxy. Don't...talk to him about me. I believe whatever he's feeling now won't be helped by pressing, and as much as I'd like to know what is going on, it seems the best course of action is inaction, for the moment at least. He will talk when he wants to talk."_

"I agree, sir." Roxy answered tightly, "I don't know why he was so cold when he first saw you, and as much as I would like to know, my instincts are telling me that's not a question I would like answered." 

_"I fear my instincts are telling me the same thing. Thank you, Roxy. Both for hearing me out, and for your friendship with him. Your support is invaluable to him now."_

"He had my back first, sir; I could hardly call myself a gentlewoman if I let him stumble now." 

She could hear the carefully cultivated tone of doubt as Harry answered, _"Quite."_

Smiling to herself, Roxy pushed her way onto the street, thankful that she'd convinced Merlin of the benefit to be had by adding in the ability of the lens to shift from clear to sunglasses with the application of sunlight, cutting out the excess of needing to carry two pairs of the tech-laden specs. Her predecessor had hated carrying the glasses with him; claiming that they interfered with his fighting abilities and were too easily broken. Roxy, having once met the man, thought he was full of bullshit and had simply wanted to get a rise out of Merlin. She would admit that said rise usually ended up in Merlin's Scottish brogue coming out full-force, which was entertaining to all, but it was not a good reason to do something as stupid as leave the glasses behind. 

Roxy wondered idly if it was Eggsy's situation or something about their mark that had her more on edge. While they were far from flying blind, she would feel a hell of a lot better knowing what the game plan was for Valentine and this arms dealer. What purpose did an arms dealer serve in this new world of Valentine's? 

Roxy found herself walking through Little India, the scent of the spice markets nearly dizzying. "He's...getting his eyebrows threaded? Really?" Roxy huffed, half-way to disbelieving. 

_"Not everyone can be blessed with flawless eyebrows, Rox."_ Eggsy's voice, a gruff croak, sounded over the comm, and she bit her lip to stop herself from smiling. _"What's with leavin' me behind?"_

"You need the sleep, Eggsy, face it." 

_"Where are you?"_

"Little India. Join me for lunch?" 

_"Oi, no trying to burn me tongue outta me head like last time, alrigh'?"_

"It's not my fault you didn't know what wasabi was." 

He snorted, but the comm line cut out without a reply. _"Lancelot, your mark appears to be going to a gala dinner tonight. I trust you've packed a suitable dress."_

_"She can wear a suit, same as me."_ Eggsy told him; well knowing Roxy's feelings on the matter of disparate expectations between Roxy's attire and that of other Kingsman. 

"I have a dress," Roxy confirmed, a warmth in her chest for Eggsy all the same. "Eggsy, are you up for being my arm-candy for the night?" 

_"'Course, Rox. You want the blue tie or the green?"_

_"Blue, it'll bring out your eyes."_ Harry's voice filtered over the comms, though Roxy was not at all sure if he'd meant it to. 

"Well, blue _would_ go with my dress quite nicely." Roxy managed not to cough out the comment with the awkwardness she felt. 

_"Blue 't is, then."_ The affected joviality of Eggsy's tone wasn't quite right, and Roxy grit her teeth at the sound of it, but let it go, skipping across the road quickly, smiling brightly at the gathering of women on the other side, speaking easily to them even as Eggsy scoffed at her talents, never ceasing to be amazed at just what she could do. 

_"Do we get a say in what colour pants you wear, too?"_ Merlin growled, clearly unamused. 

Roxy's lips quirked, her head turning so that no one would catch her speaking to nothing, "Who says he'll wear any?" 

The onslaught of Harry's choked coughing was covered only by Eggsy's whoop of 'that's me girl!', and if Roxy really tried, she could almost make out the sound of Merlin cursing them all out in his head. 

Lunch with Eggsy turned into a wild hunt through the market for a present for Daisy and his mother, the two of them laughing as they danced around each other down the street. 

"Alright, you tired, old man," Roxy laughed as Eggsy twirled her into his side, both of them grinning as they caused a spectacle enough to be written off in the minds of anyone watching; to pretty young things without a care in the world, "if we head back now, you can nap before helping me zip into my dress." 

Eggsy snorted but didn't resist as she led them back towards their hotel, depositing him in his room with a kiss to the cheek and quickly activating the comm, "Harry, I'm leaving him in your capable hands, here. Do try to get him to sleep, would you?" 

~

What none of them had seen coming was the kidnapping. 

Valentine had been broadcasting the grandeur of the event, and that had meant that a shot, perfectly clear and well-defined, of Eggsy Unwin under that fuckwit Charlie's knife had gone out to those who Valentine had considered 'friends'. 

Eggsy and Roxy had made it to the gala, and had split up; Roxy to charm her way into the mark's good graces, and Eggsy to slip up to the room he'd taken out in the hotel, for a particular black briefcase that the mark hadn't been seen without until he'd come down to the party. All that could be heard was the sound of a shot being loosed, and Eggsy groaning Roxy's name before he fell. She nearly took out a waiter as she struggled to get to him without much hope. The sharp pain of a prick to her skin was the only notice she received before she was falling, fainting into their mark's arms. 

The only reason Roxy hadn't been tossed god knew where with Eggsy was because their mark had a thing for blondes, and while Eggsy was pretty enough, Roxy was even more alluring a choice. That she could just as easily kill him with her thighs as Eggsy could was not something Roxy felt the need to dwell on at all as she played the damsel, waiting for one single slip to cost her mark the information holding her off from strangling him to death with said thighs. 

_"Lancelot, Harry is on his way."_ Merlin told her urgently, and she blinked slowly as the mark reached to gently take off her glasses preparatory to a kiss. 

Harry had to be mad with worry, just as much or worse than she was, and she'd had enough of playing to other people's thoughts of her. She caught the fingers of the hand reaching for her glasses and broke them easily, twisting his hand around and pinning him face-first into the glass coffee table. "I've rather lost my patience, here, and while you may not be the most repulsive man I've been hit on by, that only means you're slightly less disgusting than Charlie fucking Hesketh, and that really isn't saying much, now, is it? So, you're going to tell me what you're doing still in possession of your head, and why Valentine would've brought a worm like you into his great new world, and then you're going to tell me _exactly_ where you've hidden my partner." He gave a token struggle, and she dislocated his arm from its socket with an easy twitch of movement. 

_"Lancelot, I'm heading directly to Eggsy's coordinates."_ Harry informed her after her interrogation had gotten that far; his voice all cold, composed business. 

"How many men do you have?" 

"After watchin' him take down Val's army? Don' need many, just need them with the right frame of mind." He smiled bloodily, and Roxy hit him across the mouth once more, for good measure. 

There was a troubling lull on the other end of the comm, and Roxy straightened up, her brows furrowed. 

"It was a fucking test in Kentucky..." the man wheezed, triumphantly bloodthirsty, "all tha's needed is the test machine, and the chips--"

In her ear, Merlin swore viciously, and she heard something break, _"He'd placed biometrics on the machine."_

The words left Merlin and Roxy's mouths at relatively the same time, the continued silence on Harry's part making her feel even more antsy than she had been already. "Not on that one...jus' a simple switch for tha' one, and gifted to me for the end of the world. Val an' I had a fucking deal, you little--" Roxy cleaned his clock almost boredly, pursing her lips and cocking a brow. 

"What was that?" 

Swearing under his breath and spitting out teeth, the bastard looked up at her with the fight tightly controlled in his eyes, and she entertained the thought that she loved targets like these most of all: she enjoyed the tearing of all their won-over ego under her proverbial claws and between her proverbial teeth. She was a storm with skin, as the saying went, and if a man like the one she had pinned to his own coffee table thought himself a worthy opponent, he would quickly learn. 

_"Merlin...Merlin, I can't--"_ Harry stuttered, his beautiful and endlessly composed voice dangerously close to breaking. 

_"Harry, listen to me: Eggsy can take care of himself better than anyone,"_ but that was not Harry's problem. No, Harry's problem was lying curled around his conscience, and had been since that day. Harry was not good with losing his control, and the loss and ensuing bloodshed had left him broken. 

In the jet, Harry's eyes were full and far away, his head spinning as he managed to croak out, "It's not him I worry for, Merlin." 

The background sound from Roxy's end of the line died out, and Harry wanted to laugh and cry at the stupidity of it. He was a grown man--a Kingsman! Losing himself as he had in that church had lost him all measure of pride or self-respect. _"Harry...Harry, listen to me. What happened you had no choice in. You would have done anything to stop it, and we know that."_

"Oh? And what of Eggsy, hm? What will happen to him when he loses control and kills an innocent? Eggsy, who can never harm something harmless!" 

_"Harry, I can find a way to make it so that it won't effect you so you can get to Eggsy: you can save him."_

Harry was shaking, staring down at his hands on the controls. "Do that, Merlin. As soon as this plane touches down, I intend on finding him."

Merlin devolved into a low, roiling growl as he talked himself through it; Harry letting the autopilot hold for a while as he pulled himself up, dropping his glasses on the table as he walked past the passenger lounge and into the spacious bathroom. He ran the tap cold, splashing water into his face as though he needed to prove to himself that what was going on wasn't some waking nightmare that he couldn't escape from. 

Looking into his own reflection, Harry saw nothing more than a ghost of the man he'd been before Kentucky. He could see the wild, hunted look; brought out by how pale his skin had gone, how thin a line he pressed his lips into without even realizing that his heart was beating out of his chest. The rational man in him knew that this was simply a panic attack, but that didn't stop it from feeling mortal. Thoughts of being near Eggsy in the state he'd been in in Kentucky mixed with the insidious nausea that came for him with the thought of what that loss of control would be like for Eggsy. 

'You won't hurt him,' Harry told himself, 'and he won't hurt you.' 

Harry very nearly scoffed at himself, knowing that for as much as he trusted Eggsy, he did not trust himself even a fraction as much. He'd kill himself for hurting Eggsy; it would be a mercy compared to the thought of living with himself for having done it. Harry forced himself to stand straight, looking his traitorous reflection in the eye with his jaw set as stone. "You'll save him...or you'll die trying." 

Arming himself, Harry took up his glasses to hear Merlin in the midst of a tirade directed at him for having put his glasses down like a cowardly tit. 

"Merlin, if you're quite done, I need a way around that chip." Harry interrupted, "In five minutes, I'm going to be on their doorstep." 

_"The inciting cause of the madness is a tone, above human hearing. But we can block it off. I'm going to pipe music that has a wave pattern that will overwrite the tone, blocking it off. It's hardly Beethoven, but beggars and choosers and all that bollocks..."_

"What is it?" 

_"The guitar solo of 'Free Bird' by Lynyrd Skynyrd is one of the pieces with just the right wavelength and pattern to stop the effects."_

Harry snorted, "It's a damn good thing I like rock, then, isn't it?" 

_"Yes, 'tis. Now, Eggsy's glasses have been taken from him, and I don't have a way to stop the tone from getting to him without them. Perhaps investing in separate comm units from the glasses may well be prudent. However, if you give him one good hit over the head, it should buy you enough time to find the machine and destroy it."_

"Do you recall my weapon's request, Merlin? The one that is a stun gun in a grenade?"

_"Yes, but I haven't quite worked out how to stop it from electrocuting everyone in the room, it's not been cleared for missions, I didn't outfit you with one."_

"Damn." 

_"Yes, yes, I know, but we'll figure it out."_ Merlin sighed. 

Harry took the plane down carefully, the element of surprise useless when presented with the sheer crazy he was coming up against. 

_"You may not find as many innocents as you'd thought, Harry, but these people will be even more armed."_

"Let's let them know I'm here, then, Merlin." Harry grunted, hefting a rocket launcher as he stepped to get out of the plane. The readout on his glasses informed him of both where Eggsy was, and where would be safest to fire his warning shot. From the way he could see the infrared image of Eggsy moving, he knew that the boy had managed to get loose. 

The abandoned abattoir was still filled with the old tools of the trade, and Harry clenched his teeth at the thought of the damage that could be done with one of those nasty hooks. _"Looks as though Eggsy was locked in one of the processing rooms with enough guards to take on MI5. He's taken out most of them, and the locks on the doors are holding, but it's only a matter of time before the brawl outside spills in, or he spills out."_

"Right-o, Merlin, start the transmission and I'll see you on the other side, shall I?"

Harry snorted to himself again as he tossed the launcher back into the plane before anyone else with designs on explosions could come tumbling out of the building. Armed with his umbrella, one grenade lighter, and a single gun, Harry Hart went willingly into a living nightmare. The chords struck up and he sent a prayer of thanks that it wasn't that sappy, sickening shite that played for four minutes before this. As he gets a good look at the guns and the knives and everything else these men were outfitted with, he feels a little better in the knowledge that there is no room for innocence in this building. Thankful for small miracles, Harry lets the dance begin, using his umbrella more as a bat than as the gun it's made to be; winging it solidly off of the back of heads and using the hook to drag out legs from under men firing into the next of his victims' vicinity. He lets the music fall over him and makes sure, with every broken bone and every bullet he fires, that it's him that's in control of this. 

The machine has to be close, he knows, but that falls to the background as he cuts a swathe of good, wholesome destruction through the men he's lost count of now. This dance is something Harry's body knows, something that his mind has always given over to with the ease of the rested. He can do this in his sleep if need be, and he thinks that maybe he has before. 

This was the antidote for what'd been tearing him apart. His body, _always_ his weapon and no one else's, had been used in that Kentucky church, and he couldn't drive away the ghost of it. Now, in this fresh hell, he knew that what had gone on there would have happened if he'd been as capable of killing as he truly was or not. Eggsy's mercy to JB, sitting on his mind the entire time he'd flown to Kentucky and in sitting in the back for him to dwell on as he'd cut down men and women as easily as breathing, was something that Harry had never had; and it was only because Eggsy himself had been a helpless soul, looking for mercy and shown none, that Eggsy had this kindness. 

Harry found himself surrounded in a sea of bodies, blood dripping from his hands, and his conscience more clear than it had been in months. He was free, finally, to look for the machine. Kicking down the door of a custodian's closet, Harry made his decision, and an inner voice that sounded an awful lot like Merlin started swearing him out as he walked in, triggering the lighter and leaving it sitting on top of the machine. He did not care to take it apart and see how it ticked: he did not care for its continued existence. As the grenade blew up, sending pieces of that damnable thing into nothingness, Harry felt a little more at peace. 

The music stopped, and Merlin's sigh was very audible, bringing a wry twist to Harry's lips as he ran to the stairs for the upper level, heedless of the knife wound in his thigh and the wrench of his back. He pushed through the dead to a half-twisted door, kicking his way through that as well and falling inside to see Eggsy collapsed, eyes distant as his hands shook. "Eggsy!" 

Eggsy jumped, looking at Harry with wide, wet eyes, and Harry was running for him in a heartbeat, falling beside him and wrapping him in his arms, pulling him down against his chest. 

"Eggsy, it's alright. I'm here, you're safe." Covered in blood and bits, Harry pressed a kiss to his forehead and held him as Eggsy was swept up in a panic attack of his own. "I'm sorry for the wait."

He could hear Roxy calling for Eggsy as she traced Harry's path up the stairs, coming in with fear in her eyes as she took in the utter carnage that had been wrought. 

"You're safe," Harry repeated as Eggsy began to calm down, pulling into himself as if trying to hide away from prying eyes. 

"Harry, are you alright?" Roxy asked quietly, and Eggsy sat up so quickly that Harry had to catch him. 

"Y-You see him? Y-You see H-Harry?" Eggsy demanded, voice broken in the worst way as one hand seized on Harry's cuff and tightened into a desperate hold. 

Harry looked at the young man who wouldn't look at him, the coldness of Eggsy's reaction, the evasiveness of his interactions painted in a new light that brought a wave of anguish that felt as though it were tidal. 

Roxy looked at Eggsy with wide eyes, silent for a long time before she could make herself nod, "He's real?" 

She nodded again, and Harry pulled while Eggsy climbed, ending with Eggsy in Harry's lap, wrapped tight enough in his arms that Harry questioned his ability to breathe. "You haven't been taking something--" 

"No," Eggsy croaked, "I jus'...I thought I'd bloody lost it."

Harry tore off his glasses so that he couldn't hear Merlin swearing the boy out, Roxy retrieving them with shaking hands and taking off her own much more calmly as she stared at the two men curled on the blood-soaked ground. 

"Harry, I'll fly us home." Roxy coaxed, offering the men her hands, "You two need to be cleaned up and warm for what comes next." 

Harry was unwilling to let Eggsy go, but he stood anyway, keeping his arms locked around Eggsy just as much as Eggsy clung to him. 

"M-Merlin should send a clean-up team." Harry managed. 

"He will." Roxy assured, taking Harry's arm and guiding them out into the first strains of dawn. 

Harry was unwilling to let go even long enough to get cleaned up, but he peeled himself away from Eggsy's arms as Roxy brought out a first aid kit to make sure that Eggsy wasn't too badly injured, the both of them keeping silent as she carefully helped him clean up. Harry showered in the small cubicle provided in the bathroom, the water scalding and the soap smelling strong and fresh. He came out and replaced Roxy to help Eggsy in, touches gentle as he worked carefully around Eggsy's own injuries, heedless of his own. 

Roxy clucked her tongue, her eyes catching on the stain of blood coming up from where he'd been stabbed in the thigh, and Harry submitted himself to her ministrations. 

"A psychotic break brought on by PTSD and intense physical and emotional stress..." Roxy began, her hands steadier with the needle and thread than Harry's could be. 

"That's what he thought he was going through." Harry reminded gently, "When really I've been here the whole time." 

Roxy looked up at him with her measured gaze, "If we go back to Kingsman, you'll have to deal with Merlin."

"I need to take him home." Harry replied simply, "I need to take care of him." 

Roxy nodded, a small smile pulling at her mouth, "Good, we're agreed." 

Harry breathed a laugh, shaking his head, "You're one hell of a woman, Miss Smythe." 

She smiled, and left Harry to put the soft woolen trousers back on over the bandage. Eggsy came out in much the same, white shirt and grey trousers, his hair combed back from his haunted eyes. 

Harry stood, the two of them facing one another nervously, unsure how to touch. 

With shaking fingers, Eggsy brushed his fingertips over the scar marking Harry's temple. "How?"

Harry sat down again, and Eggsy drew close, but didn't quite touch him. "Valentine didn't check the body, thankfully. Kingsman glasses are ballistics-rated, and the lens and frame took the brunt of the impact. The frame broke, of course, which is what happened there." 

"And head wounds bleed like a bitch." Eggsy murmured to himself, brushing his fingers over the knot of his scar. "You're real."

"I am." Harry murmured, letting Eggsy reach into him, pulling him in until they were nose to nose, Eggsy straddled over his lap. "I should never have left without letting you know how proud I really am of you. You have a kindness that I utterly wish I could have."

Eggsy's hand swept down until he had his fingers resting on the side of Harry's neck, his adam's apple bobbing as Harry wrapped his arms around Eggsy's waist to keep him there. "You do, though." Eggsy whispered, "You're the one that saved me."

Eggsy's lips were soft, willing even as Harry just pushed him into a kiss. The surprise of it had fallen away into the sweetness of his mouth in a heartbeat, warmth spreading out from his heart as they fell into each other, hands scrabbling over arms and shoulders. 

"You saved me." Eggsy whispered again, pushing against Harry into they'd pushed and pulled into an embrace that felt as though they were holding each other together in order to fall apart themselves. 

"I am in love with you, Eggsy Unwin. I do not deserve you, but I can't stop myself from asking for you." 

"You had me when you wiped the fucking floor with Dean's goons and just sat back down and finished your fucking pint." Eggsy laughed, nuzzled against Harry. 

Harry smiled, an honest and real smile, and Eggsy had to kiss him again for it, lost for how gorgeous Harry was when he smiled. They sat there, lost in the kissing, until Roxy had set down the plane, clearing her throat a few times and laughing when neither of them seemed to notice. 

"Fine, but twenty more minutes, and I send in Merlin with a reminder that you've been in the field thinking you've lost your mind, Eggsy; and that you took your glasses off to stop his tirade, Harry." 

When they did break for air after she'd left, Eggsy laughed, "I don' think she realizes you're her boss." 

Harry laughed in whispers, kissing Eggsy one last time before they finally disengaged, slipping out of the plane to find that Roxy was talking Merlin down in his office, a note to sneak out while she had him distracted pinned to the outside of the door. 

Driving them to Harry's house was easy enough, Harry having disabled any attempt of Merlin's to take control of the vehicle with his iPad. Letting themselves in, Harry breathed in the familiar smell of home, surprised that it wasn't as musty as he'd thought months of disuse would make it. Eggsy, though, looked sheepish when he mentioned this, and Harry drew him back into his arms again, holding him tight. 

"There's a lot we need to talk about." Harry murmured, sighing into Eggsy's neck. 

"Fuck that, Harry. All I want is to wake up in your bed with you tomorrow morning." 

Harry pushed his fingers through Eggsy's hair, kissing him long and sweet. "Then let's go to bed." 

They tumbled over each other, Eggsy laughing as Harry wrapped his arms around him and lifted, carrying him to the bed. Eggsy got his shirt off, and then took Harry's for good measure, his long hands falling to Harry's shoulders, fingers brushing over his back. He wrapped himself around Harry, tucking his chin against Harry's shoulder and looking down, his fingers finding the scar from where he'd been stabbed in that church; finding another where an explosion had left him on fire and barely conscious enough to put it out. Eggsy touched every single mark with a reverence that left Harry shaking around him, Eggsy's mouth gentle and barely there as he kissed slowly at Harry's jaw, down his throat and over his shoulder. There weren't many scars to find on Eggsy's skin. Not with the way in which he'd been beaten by the bastard who Harry still needed to decide if he wanted to kill or imprison. With Eggsy there in his arms, Harry knew that letting the bastard live was too good a fate for him. 

Instead, strong hands wrapped around Eggsy's forearm, where a spiral fracture had appeared more often than not. He brushed gentle fingers over the lips that had been split too many times, the incredible eyes that had been blackened, the cheek left bruised. Harry had scars from his traumas for all to see, but Eggsy's couldn't be seen at all. 

"I beat him, you know." Eggsy told him, catching his hand and kissing the base of his thumb, curling his fingers and kissing the backs. "I took 'im and his goons apart." 

"I wasn't lying about the information I had on him. Did you find it?" Eggsy shook his head, and Harry hummed, "Then I'll take it to the authorities myself." Eggsy hummed this time, kissing the corner of his mouth and nipping lightly at his chin. "I'm proud of you. I may have saved you, but you've saved everyone else." 

Eggsy chuckled, letting a little space between them, and Harry watched with dark eyes as he laid back, lifting his hips to push his trousers down. He wasn't wearing pants, and Harry snorted at that, smiling fondly as he took the trousers the rest of the way, undoing his own and shirking them easily. Eggsy pulled him in, pressing together like he couldn't get enough of simple skin on skin contact, sucking and biting kisses into Harry's neck. "Tell me you have a condom and lube." Eggsy moaned, arching into Harry's touch as he wrapped Eggsy's thighs around his waist, his fingers dimpling Eggsy's skin. 

Harry reached over into his bedside table, and Eggsy groaned happily, biting his lower lip and leaning his head back, baring the column of his neck in a way that Harry couldn't resist the temptation of. Harry licked over his jugular and bit, his hands wrapping around his thighs, hooking his knees up over Harry's shoulders, Eggsy moaning as Harry's fingers slid against his opening, the click of the lube opening sending a shiver down his spine before Harry's slicked fingers dipped in, teasing. "God, but you're beautiful." Harry groaned, taking him in with a desperation on face that made Eggsy's stomach tighten in an equal desire. 

"Harry, don't fucking tease." Eggsy groaned, knocking with Harry's shoulder with his knee, smiling when Harry shot him a look. "I've had a fucking chubby for you since you got me out of prison. I thought I'd be on my knees for you in the bathroom of the fucking bar." 

Harry growled, working a finger against the muscle of Eggsy's opening until it gave, letting him in. Eggsy's cock lulled against his hip, precum leaking from the tip. Harry got Eggsy to grasp behind his knees, holding himself open as Harry leaned down, licking a flat stripe up Eggsy's cock before sucking the head into his mouth and hollowing his cheeks as he worked his finger, crooking it into Eggsy's prostate and swallowing the gush of precum as Eggsy cried out. 

"Fuck, Harry!" Harry came off with a pop, the sound so vulgar Eggsy felt like he was lightheaded, then screamed as Harry licked around his finger. "Oh, oh fuck...Harry!" 

Harry pushed with his tongue, sliding his finger free to work two in, sucking at the rim of muscle as it stretched. Eggsy cried out, shaking as Harry turned him inside out. 

Scissoring his fingers, Harry teased at Eggsy's prostate until the boy was whimpering, his lashes heavy with tears and his skin flushed from the tips of his ears down to his chest. Harry continued to rim and finger Eggsy until the younger man became a shaking, sobbing mess, then took his cock onto his tongue to swallow him down as he burst from the pleasure, three fingers sliding against his prostate as Harry milked him for every shudder of pleasure. 

Harry removed his fingers gently before the pleasure could become pain, urging Eggsy's legs down as he kissed over Eggsy's chest, sucking and teasing his nipples. "So bloody beautiful like this." Running his hands over the sweat-sheened lines of Eggsy's body, Harry licked up a trail from collar to ear, taking the lobe between his teeth as Eggsy wrapped limbs no more substantial than jelly around him, holding him close. 

Eggsy passed a hand through Harry's hair, smiling to himself that it'd gone to curls without him having tamed it back from the shower on the jet, and he pulls Harry in only to push them over, sliding on top of the man and leaning back, reaching for the hot, hard line of his cock; thick and tapering and perfect in Eggsy's hand. He kept silent as he positioned himself and slid down into the slow breach of it, biting his lip and groaning deep in his chest as Harry slid completely home, the stretch of it dizzying. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off of Harry's face, as if looking away would mean that Harry would disappear again, and the thought is as painful as a knife to the back or a bullet to the gut. 

Harry pulled Eggsy down until he laid over him, kissing him with a softness that had Eggsy breathless, "I'm safe here, with you." Harry whispered, "I will not be going anywhere." 

Eggsy sighed out a breath, his hips stuttering as he picked up a slow, hard pace; the two of them grinding together more than letting even an inch separate them. Eggsy was breathless, hard again before Harry started to tremble into his own pleasure, curling a calloused palm around Eggsy's cock and licking into his mouth Eggsy came hard, his vision whiting out for a minute as Harry came with him. 

They laid there panting together, the both of them shaking against each other and unwilling to let each other go even a little. "Do you know how many times I've saved you, Harry?" Eggsy breathed, his fingers brushing back and forth over his heart as it beat madly against its cage, "I save you a thousands times a night, Harry. I stop you from leaving; or I shoot JB, whether the round is live or not, and I come with you. I take the bullet, or I shoot Valentine right there in the tailor's, even if I'd go to prison for it. Every night, I find a new way to save you; and every night I lose you all over again." 

Harry pulled him in tight, pressing a kiss to his forehead and sliding his hands over Eggsy's skin. "There are no guarantees in this life. There are no promises I can make you, none but this: I will do my utmost, always, to return to you. I love you, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that we both come home." 

Eggsy leaned his forehead against Harry's, his fingers tangled in the ends of his curls as he pressed kisses to Harry's lips, "I love you, too, Harry." 

~

"Daisy, my lil flower!" Eggsy called to his baby sister as she ran for him in her pretty sari, her hair done up with flowers and ribbons. "Oh, my gorgeous girl!" He cried, pressing a kiss to her cheek as he caught her up in his arms. 

The little girl's laughter was shrill and delighted as her older brother twirled her around, blowing a raspberry against her chubby, red cheek. He was dressed in the best suit he would ever wear, his hair perfectly slicked and his vermillion tie done in what Roxy had informed him was the Eldredge knot; his pocket square a sweet off-white in the charcoal grey of his suit, the black silk lapels of his jacket cut smoothly, the inky shine matching that of his waistcoat. His cufflinks could not kill anyone for once, and nor could his perfectly shined Oxfords. Daisy was dressed so that her sari would match her brother's tie, embroidered with golden phoenixes. Roxy had picked it up on her latest trip to India, along with the pair of gold rings that Daisy would soon be carrying down the aisle. 

"Don't rumple, either of you, or there will be hell to pay." Michelle Unwin scolded from the doorway. Eggsy had never seen her look happier or healthier than she did then; her hair done elegantly by Roxy, with a flower to match Daisy's in the curve of the low-set bun. She smiled at her children, reaching for them both and pulling them in. 

"You look right gorgeous, mum." Eggsy told her, voice low as he hugged her tight. 

"You look just like your father, Eggsy." She had a tear in her eye, but she caught it before he could, scooping her daughter down from his arms and fixing Daisy's sari unnecessarily. "Just as nervous and giddy as he was." 

Eggsy laughed lightly, nudging his sister's cheek and winking at her to make her smile. "Have you seen Harry?" 

"Yes, dear. He's just as nervous and giddy as you are, I would imagine." Michelle straightened, her baby-pink skirt suit smooth and elegant as she put her hands on her son's lapels, looking him dead in the eye, "You two have been together two years now, love, but it still stands: hurt each other and I'll help Roxanne hide the appropriate body." 

The stern expression was gone with a grin and a wink, a kiss pecked to Eggsy's cheek as he laughed softly, shaking his head. 

"Alright, my little flower, are you ready to walk your bruv down the aisle?" Eggsy asked as Michelle passed into the rows of seats filling with Kingsman agents and Eggsy's old crew alike, Roxy standing at the front in her best man position in a pinstripe suit, and Merlin waiting on the opposite side in--of all things--a kilt, and looking none too happy about it. 

"Are you ready to be a Hart?" Harry asked, joining the Unwin siblings on the grass and smiling as he took the hand of Daisy's that Eggsy wasn't holding. 

Eggsy looked up at Harry; the grey of his temples and the warmth of his expression only lending more to the dashing impression given by his tuxedo, feeling as if he could shine like a second sun for all the joy bound up in his chest. "I'm ready to be yours." 

Harry quirked a grin, "Good." 

The band began to play, and Harry stooped to peck a kiss to Daisy's head, taking Eggsy's arm as the little one led them out into the ceremony to the strains of the violin. There would be no 'til death do us part' in their vows; because death was not something they were willing to bow down for, either of them. 

"What happens when your third time making the paper comes after you've already been announced dead once, and are now getting married?" Eggsy muttered out of the side of his mouth as they joined hands at the altar. 

Harry fought back a snort, the look of amused mischief in his eyes, "Trust you to ensure I'm not a gentleman after all." 

Hours later, Eggsy brushed his lips over a familiar knot of scar tissue as he danced with Harry, smiling over Harry's shoulder as Roxy and Merlin did shots, and Daisy insisted she throw her flower crown because there was no bouquet.

When Merlin caught it and proceeded to moon every last one of his agents in victory, Eggsy and Harry could hardly be blamed for the rest of the night being lost in the love and laughter of having their lives tied officially together.

**Author's Note:**

> Please, I'm begging you, send me any requests you have at [wirewrappedlily](http://wirewrappedlily.tumblr.com/).


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